“For someone to be brutally attacked in this manner is just disgraceful. This is a safe society, I believe, but ... this is the third international student and of course it’s a concern to us.”

A 27-year-old Singaporean student, Meena Narayanan, was killed in an Upper Mt Gravatt motel room last week and a 19-year-old man was charged with the murder of Korean student, Eunji Ban, 22, last November.

Min Tae Kim, a 28-year-old Korean working in Brisbane, was murdered in December.

Queensland police told Guardian Australia there was no link between the four deaths and that arrests have been made in the three previous cases and charges laid.

The Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, said he was “sad and troubled” by this latest case, but that he believed Brisbane was safe for students and safe for residents .